The house of sand and fog
Los Angeles Times states that “The most rending kind of war is not between two hatreds, but between two hopes”. Correspondingly, Andre Dubus III introduces two hopes in the novel House of Sand and Fog written in 1999. Behrani and Kathy, two determined yet fragile individuals, come from different backgrounds that meet in the California hills struggles to gain social stability. The competing desires for the house leads to Behrani’s ultimate downfall. His obsession with the house comes from the ambition to procure a large sum of money to ameliorate the family’s social status in America; as a result, he is blind to see the house’s flaws. Consequently, this restricts his ability to understand kathy when she claims she is the righteous owner of the house. The continuous misconception between Kathy and Behrani evolves into severe conflict; the final outcome is tragedy, deaths. Obsession with the house is the result of the desire to gain social status. Behrani’s fame is lost since the day they fled to America from Iran four years ago. In Iran, Behrani is Colonel in the Imperial Air Force and others respect him deeply indeed. Here, he works outdoors as a garbage soldier and others view him “no longer than a man would take for a dead insect upon his windshield while driving”, Behrani thought “for the thousandth time in this terrible country I wished to be wearing my uniform”. (Dubus III, 22) He is ambitious to restore his dignity and social status, so he devotes most of his time to hard work. In the evenings, he works at the convenience store to earn enough for their monthly rent of three thousand dollars. They have forty eight thousand dollars remaining and his son, Esmail needs this money to attend first two years of university. His daughter, Soraya marries a young engineer on Saturday and they are now free to leave the place which they rent to keep up their appearance. Behrani argues with his wife, Nadi, multiple times for a more reasonable place to live and now